José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz (born 13 August 1925) was an Argentine politician, best known as the Minister of Economy under de facto president Jorge Rafael Videla between 1976 and 1981, during the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process.

On 2 April 1976 Martínez de Hoz announced a plan to further open Argentina's markets, believing that the country's national industry was inefficient and uncompetitive compared with that of the rest of the world. He wanted to lessen Argentina's trade barriers, which he believed to be a cause of economic isolation. As a result of the changes instituted by Martínez de Hoz, many local enterprises became incapable of competing with imported products and declared bankruptcy.

Believing it was crucial to keep factories working so as to avoid unemployment, the Minister of Economy took an even more controversial step when he decided to incorporate the debt of private companies into the national debt. He wanted to keep inflation in check and stimulate foreign investment. However, as a result workers' salaries were frozen and subject to state control, and the debt of private companies as well as the national public and private debt increased considerably.

The Martínez de Hoz deregulation of the financial markets removed checks on banks and transferred the responsibility to the state, which took charge of their debt as needed. Imports increased and short-term financial speculation flourished. The fiscal and trade balances skyrocketed. Income inequality increased. The public debt, which amounted to $7,000 million at the start of the dictatorship, had grown to $43,000 by the time of the restoration of democracy in 1983.

Martínez de Hoz was indicted in 1988 for alleged involvement in human rights abuses, and spent 77 days in jail, but was then freed, and finally benefitted from the pardon of President Carlos Menem in 1990. In 2006, a judge declared the pardon unconstitutional and revoked the suspension of the judicial process dictated before, thus leaving the way open to investigate Martínez de Hoz's alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a businessman and his son between 1976 and 1977.